Aronian, Caruana Start Hot @ GCT: Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025
The Grand Chess Tour’s Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is underway, with three days of rapid and two days of blitz in store for ten of the world’s top players. There is no shortage of American players in the field, taking six of the ten places, and joined by World Champion Gukesh and several other internationals.
The first day of the rapid round robin saw Levon Aronian jump out to a lead with a perfect 3/3, followed closely by Fabiano Caruana at 2.5/3. The rapid games count for double points over the blitz in the tournament standings, ultimately splitting importance as there will be a double round robin over the two days of blitz. Altogether, there were only three draws out of 15 games on day one!
Caruana finished his day with a 17 move win over Leinier Dominguez. A Symmetrical English took a bizarre turn, and in the following position Dominguez, as Black, ticked under two minutes while Caruana was at close to 15 minutes of the starting 25.
14. …Bf8-g7?? counterattacks c3 rather than directly handling the knight on c4, though the best chance for Black was …Nxb2!. 15. Bxc4 Bxc3+ 16. bxc3 Qxc3+ 17. Ke2 ends with White up a full piece, so Black resigned.
Follow along on Lichess, or read more about the event on its official website.
Photo via Saint Louis Chess Club
